Hi Guys and Gals,
Long-time reader, first-time poster. I have a 2005 SR5 4WD (105k miles) that I left sit for two weeks while on a business trip. My wife fired it up once about a week in. When I came home and fired up the beast, it struggled to keep idling and shook. So, I applied the accelerator in neutral and blew out quite a bit of smoke. Then, it began idling ok. (My wife said it idled "like a diesel" when she drove it, too.) We went about our errands and a couple hours later, and three stops, the Check Engine Light and three VSC lights came on. I popped the hood and notice my AFE CAI was missing 2 screws, and there was a ton of dried leaves on the perimeter of the engine bay, but everything else "looked" fairly normal.
When we got home, I checked this forum and decided to try 1) getting a new gas cap and 2) replacing the CAI housing screws. $33 later (local Bay Area dealership) and $1.50 (local OSH) later and the idiot lights were still ablaze. So, I disconnected the battery and left it unplugged for a bit while I did other things. Came back, hooked up the battery, and fired it up. Voila; no more idiot lights.
I'm a hobby mechanical, weekend warrior at best, so can't tell you exactly what went wrong. But, I think the gas tank collected condensation while it sat for a couple of weeks due to the gas cap not being all too great, causing it to blow smoke on startup. Probably something with the poor vacuum sealing of the original cap coupled with the condensation triggered one of the O2 sensors to freak out. O2 sensor freaked out and the "system" threw the CEL and cut all "unnecessary" electric amenities (ie VSC). New gas cap probably fixed the vacuum leak and driving it around a little bit probably got rid of the condensation that freaked out the O2 sensor. Battery disconnect allowed the "system" to re-evaluate itself and realize that everything was A-OK again. I don't think replacing the lost screws did anything but give me the warm and fuzzies.
Thanks to all who posted prior. Your experience saved me from an undoubtedly costly trip to the mechanic.
-tcm